Character Encoding Converter
What is a Character Encoding Converter?
Convert text strings between standard character encodings: UTF-8, ASCII, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1), Windows-1252, and raw byte formats.
Why Use This Converter?
- Fix Mojibake & Garbled Text: Repair text corrupted by misinterpreting UTF-8 as ISO-8859-1 or Windows-1252 (e.g. `é` -> `é`).
- Legacy Database Migration: Prepare string data for legacy databases expecting ISO-8859-1 or ASCII.
- File & Network Debugging: Verify raw byte representations of multi-byte international text.
How to Use
- Paste your text string into the input area.
- Select source encoding and target encoding.
- Copy the converted text output.
Real Conversion Example
Input (TEXT):
Café (UTF-8 Bytes: 43 61 66 63 A9 in ISO-8859-1)
Output (TEXT):
Café (Clean UTF-8 Decoded String)
Important Technical Details & Mechanics
- HTML5 TextDecoder & TextEncoder APIs: Uses browser native encoding APIs for hardware-accurate byte conversion.
- Mojibake Repair: Re-encodes mismatched character sequences cleanly.
- 100% Client-Side: Processing runs in your local browser memory.
Related Developer & Utility Tools
- JSON Formatter: Format and validate JSON data.
- Text Statistics: Analyze character and word counts.
- URL Encoder: Encode and decode URL parameters.
Frequently Asked Questions
What causes garbled text like "é"?
This is called Mojibake. It occurs when UTF-8 encoded text is mistakenly read using ISO-8859-1 encoding.
What encodings are supported?
UTF-8, ASCII, UTF-16LE, UTF-16BE, ISO-8859-1 (Latin1), Windows-1252, and Base64.
Can it fix corrupted CSV text?
Yes, paste garbled text to convert it back to clean UTF-8.
Is it free?
Yes, 100% free with no registration.
What is the main function of Character Encoding Converter?
Convert text strings between UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1), ASCII, Windows-1252, and Base64 byte encodings. This converter transforms character encoding data formats locally without server uploads.